This is a lovely example of good landscape design. It’s a public space owned by a charitable trust – Hay Castle Trust. Its soft colour palette across the planting and hard materials reflect and compliment the stone and painted features of the building. The use of high quality materials adds to the feeling of permanence, history and longevity – this is a space that is designed, built and maintained to last the test of time and many pairs of feet. It just says: “we’ve been here a long time, we know what we’re doing and what you want and we’ll be doing this for many years to come!”.

The space is a very relaxed, low-key, high quality place with plenty of room for many people to be in without feeling that they’re in a crowd – you can still have a quiet and private conversation without being overheard. Simple seating and tables give the opportunity for visitors to sit, chill out and drink more coffee. Being in the middle of this small picturesque town, I would think that they have many tourist visitors but also a lot of regular local visitors who frequently return for the space as well as the good coffee. 

Design of outdoor space is as important, if not more important (not at all biased!) than the building – it draws people in, holds them there and keeps them coming back. If you’re planning any project that relies on attracting people again and again – make the landscape and its ongoing management key priorities and give them a healthy budget.